PORTLAND, maine — Poor and elderly Americans who rely on aid from the federal government to heat their homes stand to get less help this winter if Congress and the White House fail to figure out a way to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”

Nationally, the government has allocated $3.47 billion in home energy assistance to the states for fiscal 2013. Ninety percent of the money was delivered last month, but the remaining 10 percent, nearly $350 million, could hinge on the outcome of talks in Washington to avoid a combination of tax increases and automatic spending cuts.

But the plight of those in the estimated 6.9 million households who rely on the money to keep warm hardly appears to be a priority for lawmakers, said Faye MacDonald, 70, a Bangor retiree who relies on the federal program to heat her home.

“I feel like a little drop of water in a big pond that they don’t care about,” she said.

Congress is in no mood to approve emergency spending for heating aid as in past years, said Mark Wolfe of the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association. Already, states have received less money than initially projected because of the pending fiscal cliff.

“In the past, lawmakers would find a way to attach emergency spending for heating aid onto other bills, but that just won’t happen in this Congress,” he said.

The program distributes funds to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories for heating and cooling costs. It is particularly important in low-income states that rely heavily on heating oil.

Though just 6 percent of U.S. homes use oil heat, about half of families in New England use it. Residents there are expected to be hard hit this winter, thanks to a combination of high oil prices, forecasts of a harsh winter and the possible cut in federal funds, Wolfe said.

Oil is expected to be the most expensive source of heat this winter in the U.S., at about $2,500 per household.

The owners of Boulder’s Sterling University Peaks apartments, who this summer were cited for illegally subdividing 92 bedrooms in the complex, have reached an agreement to settle the case for $410,000, the city announced Thursday.